Summary:
Published in Nature Communications 9(1): 3213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05705-4 Predicted increases in temperature and aridity across the boreal forest region have the potential to alter timber supply and carbon sequestration. Given the widely-observed variation in species sensitivity to climate, there is an urgent need to develop species-specific predictive models that can account for local conditions. Here, we matched the growth of 270,000 trees across a 761,100 km2 region with detailed site-level data to quantify the growth responses of the seven most common boreal tree species in Eastern Canada to changes in climate. Accounting for spatially-explicit species-specific responses, we find that while 2 °C of warming may increase overall forest productivity by 13 ± 3% (mean ± SE) in the absence of disturbance, additional warming could reverse this trend and lead to substantial declines exacerbated by reductions in water availability. Our results confirm the transitory nature of warming-induced growth benefits in the boreal forest and highlight the vulnerability of the ecosystem to excess warming and drying.
Sector(s):
Forests
Catégorie(s):
Scientific Article
Theme(s):
Ecosystems and Environment, Forest Ecology, Forest Growth and Yield Modelling, Forestry Research, Forests
Departmental author(s):
Author(s):
D'ORANGEVILLE, Loïc, Daniel HOULE, Louis DUCHESNE, Richard P. PHILLIPS, Yves BERGERON and Daniel KNEESHAW
Year of publication:
2018
Format:
How to get the publication:
ISSN:
2041-1723
Keyword(s):
ecosystems and environment, forest ecology, forest growth and yield modelling, dendrochronology, inventory, growth, climate, forestry research scientific article